Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.

I wanted to report on deceptive business practices at the Franciscan Medical Clinics.

In February, 2014 my wife and I went to the Franciscan Medical Clinic in Gig Harbor for our annual physical. The physical is covered 100% by our insurance (Premera Blue Cross) but this clinic charged both my wife and I an additional $181 for an office visit. This was in addition to the $377 for the physical. In the case of my wife and I, we were both asked by our doctors if we had any issues/concerns we wanted to discuss. My wife indicated she had a cold sore and I indicated occasional stomach pains. Once we replied with these concerns it prompted the additional 'office visit' charge. This is deceptive and immoral to not give advance details to a customer that if they reply with issues and concerns during their physical exam they will be charged for an office visit. If this is standard process for this clinic they must provide such details to customers beforehand, otherwise a patient will always assume that the doctor asking about concerns/issues is part of the preventive medical practices provided in the physical exam.

While this occurred at the Gig Harbor Clinic, I think this is wide spread at all Franciscan Medical Clinics. Thus, the Franciscan medical clinic is making an exorbitant about of extra money with their deceptive business tactics.

Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.

AUTHOR: Scott Thompson - ()

SUBMITTED: Wednesday, March 26, 2014

POSTED: Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention and we apologize for the confusion during your visit to our clinic in Gig Harbor. At Franciscan Health System we value our patients and take pride in making sure they are healthy by performing annual physical exams. All patients should be aware that annual physical exams do not cover all of a patient's medical needs. Should a patient have medical issues tht require additional laboratory testing or procedures these may not be covered as part of an annual physical exam and should be billed separately.

We work with all our providers to make sure they inform patients concerning the charges they might receive during an office visit. We understand this information was not provided in this instance and as this was not done we will be reversing the additional charges tht you and your wife incurred during your visit. We will also be working with our physicians to make sure they inform patients about the possibility of additional charges that would not be covered as part of a standare annual physical examination.

Again, we apologize for this misunderstanding and inconvenience. Someone from our clinic staff will be contacting you to confirm this.

Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.